Edwin leigh



@hitch fatesietrnt @titre EDWIN Laien, oir-sfr.V Louis, MISSOURI.

Letters Patent No. 78,296, dated May :26, 1868; anteclated May 19, 1868.

IMPROVEIMIIIITv IN SYSTEMS OI .PRONOUNGING-DRTHOGRAPHY.

TO ALL WHO'MIIT MAY CONCERN:

Befit known tha-t I, EDWIN LEIGH, of St. Louis, in the county of St. Louis, and State o f Missouri, have invented an ImprovedpProncunning-Orthography; and I do hereby declare that the following,taken`in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part ot' this specification, isa description of' my invention, sullicient to enable those skilled in the art to practise' it.

The invention relates tothe art of representing the proper pronuncia-tion of words by combinations ofletters.

The common letters of"the alphabet a, b, c, die., I call alphabetic letters,.'svhatever diii'erencesA form they may assume, as A, a, a, l&c.,(see Drawing I, a, 1,-23, 4, 5,' 6, 7, 8, 9.) All of these'letters are a's; each has the name"a," and each and everyone, when considered as an ,a, ora letter of the alphabet, I call an alphabetic a, (see, also the forms of other letters in Drawing I.) I

vThe special and peculiar forms of the alphabetic letters, which I constructor use to denoteparticular sounds, I cali, in reference to this use, phoniclettersfl As, for example, each of the different forms of the alphabetic lette1"a(shown in Drawing I, a; 1, 2,3, 4, l5, 6,- 7, S, 9,) is a phonic letter, appropriated to denote a particular 'sound of the alphabetic a, and that sound only, (see phonic letters, arranged, Drawing II.)

When parts of an alphabetic letter areprinted in heavierlines, and more distinctly, to denote a particular sound, (see-Drawing I, y; 2 and '3, compared withi; 1 and 2,1 and g; 2, 'compared with j; 1,) I call-the distinct and heavier part ofthe letter a Phonic sign, because it` isfto the learner, the sign'of` the sound to which it -is appropriated. lhewhole'oi each of these formsof y, g, a G, considered as a sign for the sound to which it is appropriated, I call afphonic lettcrg .but theiletter i, ,(see Drawing I, i, 1,) which denote the long sound ofi in ice, is not only, a phonicle'tter, but'a vphonic sign, while thelet'ter y, (see Drawing I, y,2,)' which denotes the same'sound, thelong'sound ,of y in by, is a phonic letter, but only the heavy part of it the long i in the y ;l

is the phonic sign, (see other .letters in Drawing I;Isee also .Drawing III.)

Heretofcre7 the pronunciation of ofthography, in those languages which (like the English, and, to some extent, the French, German, Italian, &c.,) have an gorthograpliy that does not accurately indicato the soundsof words, has either been left unrepresented, or represented bythe addition of accents or diacritical marks, and

sometimes by the use of italics, or smaller letters forsilent letters. These methods have so bristled tho page with accent-marks, changed the aspect of the words andthe printed page, violated goed taste and harmony in the appearance of print, andfurnished such indefinite andjnsuilcient signs of sound, that they have not been found to be practically adapted fo'r use in reading-books, and have been employed chiey in spelling-books and dictionaries, and in them they are of very little practical value to beginners. On thc other hand, phonetic print, or phonotypy',` has been tried and found to be of immense value for tbe'purpose of teaching beginners; but its change-of the orthography, its strange aspect, and the radical changes it involves, have' utterly defeated' the most energetic efforts to put it 'into Agenet-al land practical use in theinstruction of beginners. I i i In order .to obviate these evils, I have devised my system of' prououncingbrthography, `n't1ereb v--l First, I furnish, for phonic letters and phonic signs, definite and distinct objects or forms, which are truly` practical and availnblerto the learner.

Second, I make each phonicletter or p'honic sign denote invariably but one and the saule sound.

Third', I secure, as 'far as practicable in connection with the common spelling, a nnifdrm phonic sign vfor cach Soundin those cases where different alphabetic letters must be used to stand for it; While,

`Fourth, the general and characteristic form of the alphabetic letters a, b, c, &c.is preserved, so that'inf spelling Words they will be readily-'1 `eeognized, andcalledl by their names, a, b, c,. die.

Fifth, I` preserve, as perfectlyas practicable, the outline of each word or word-picture,`so that' ift will be readily'recognized in reading, whether it be printed in my pronouncing-orthography or in the common letters now used in books, and so that it will have the old familiarV look tothe eye of him who has already learned to read in the common print. i

2 A rasee Sixth, IA preserve, unchanged, the established orthography or common spellingA of words.

Seventh, iu order to preserve more perfectly the outline of each word or word-picture, as well as the orthography, unchanged, I employ, for silent letters, light-faced letters, (whether skeleton, hair-line, outline, or in any way madeof'lighter,appearance or color than the others,) but otherwise et' the same form, size, upright positien, and general style or character as the rest of the letters, (see Drawings III, IV.) i

These benefits I have amed'to secure byx my invention, which combines all the material advantages of a. strictly phonetic print, and all the advantages of the established orthography, with the beauty and harmony of the common p`rint,'preserving even the familiar face of each word and page, with onlyia-slight change of expression.

The invention, therefore, consists in giving to common letters of the alphabet peculiar sounds, by peculi- .arities in the form or construction of said letters, while the established orthography ispreserved; and in giving to combinations of letters (spelling a werd) a pronunciationv dependent upon the peculiar forms and style or character of the common alphabetic letters ot' which the word is composed; and in employing light-faced letters (skeleton, hair-line, outline, dotted, or broken-lined, phantom, or yother light-faced letters) of otherwise the same general form,siz e, upri'ghtposition, andgeneral4 character,I as the -rest o'f the letters; and in employing the same, or a like phonic sign, in dierent alphabetic letters, to denote the same'sound; and in inserting .or

enclosing, when desirable, a 'phonic sign .in `the skeleton or outline of an alphabetic letter, (seeA Drawings I,

II, III, IV.) v t I am laware that italic and smaller-'sized letters have been used for silent letters, as already stated above., I am also aware that accented and figured letters (letters with the figures 1, 2,- 3, 8vo., printed over them) have been used to indicate the'dierent sounds of the vowels. i I am also aware that accented letters, and letters with diacritical marks drawn through them, orattachefl to them, have been used to represent certain consonant-sounds.

I am alsoaware that some -phonic letters, or varied forms of common letters, have been'used'for the purpose of indicating their diiierent'sounds; in combination with accented letters to-indicatethe vowel sounds;

some letters with diacritical marks attached to or drawn through ythem to indicate some consonant-sounds, andV italic consonant-letters to indicate silent consonants.

But I do not use italic, -gured, accented, er smallersized letters'in these wayslor combinations; indeed, I prefer to use light-faced letters insteadof them,l andI greatly extend andimprove upon theuse of phonic letters.

.In mymethod I employ pbonic vowel-and consonant-letters, by modifying the common letters and giving 'them peculiar forms, as circumstances may require, to denote the peculiar sound to be given to the letter; and giving a lighterface, as already described, to indicateslence, so as to retain the common orthography and the word-picture, and express the pronunciation 'by the peculiarities in the letters constituting the word.

The main features of the plan are- First,'.t ,o ada-pt elementary books to the wants of those learning to read and spell our common orthography.

Second, to retain and print the established orthography in full.

t Third, to distinguish silentletters by a peculiar orlighter-faced letter of the same form as the rest, andjust dilTerent or light enough to he distinct from the significant letters, while thc form of the word, or the word-4 picture, is retained nninjured.

Fourth, te distinguish the different. sounds by modifications, or special and appropriate forms oil the common lett-ers, keeping c ver in view'th'e harmony 'of our English print, and to preserve, as -much as possible, the present general appearance ot'A each letter, word, and page.

Fifth, to retain the best features of the diilerent" modes of Ateac'hing'to read and spell now in use and-most approved.v This, on the above plan, can be fully don'e, and yet all the peculiar advantages of the phonetic methodsecured to the teacher and learner. v

i Such is ageneral view of the plan, and the method of practising'the same will bo understood from the following explanations andthe accompanying drawings.

In selecting from alphabetic forms already in existence, and in devising new ones, and in employing them to 'denote particular sounds, according to the-plan and for the purposes above described, i v

I employ the common Rome-.n letters to denote the sounds forwhih they are most frequently used iu common print, as isseen in Drawings I, II, III,- ,IV,'

l I select theitalicletters a, e, g, s, w, x, and y, and, giving them an erect position, and forms in harmony wiith the Roman letters, employ them as seen in Drawings I, II, III.

I select, from thevarious phonetic forms already in existence, such as are `best suited to my purpose, and employ them as seen in the drawings.

I construct and adapt new phouiciforms where needed, as in Drawing I, a; 3,6, 7, 8, 9, 10: d; 2: e; 5:`

2: g; 2, 3: h; 2, 3: kr, 2: l; 2: o; 4, 8, 9,10: q; 2: r; 2; t,- 2: u; 3, 5, 6, 7, 8,):.w; 2, 3, 4,5: y; 2, 3, 4: .and employ them as' seen in the drawings. A

I prepare and employ various combined letters, such asare seen' in Drawing I, ch; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 6, 7, 8,

I prepare and employ light-faced letters to denote silent letters, as seen in Drawings III, 1V, adopting the mode ot making the letters light-faced, to the size and style of the letter, and the purpose for which it is used, thus:A v

For a small book-let"ter, with hairlines,.like the common Roman letters, I' employ hair-line silent letters, as most suitable, asA seen in Drawing III. I

For an Ionic letter, having no lhair-lines, andiespeciallyfor a 1argesized letter, for charts and childrens books, I employ, for silent letters; either -outlinettorms or letters of 'aflighter color, as seen in Drawing IV.

For a small'Ionic or other letter having no hair-lines, I employ, for silent letters, dotted, broken-lined, or

phantom letters, as taste and tnessmay require.

I adapt `different alphabetie letters to denote the same sound, by niaking'the heavy or significant-part of them of the same or a similar form, so as to furnish the same phoni sign while using 'tlillerent alphabetic letters, as seen in Dratvingi II; letters for short i, under the wordsill, been, women, busy, lynx; letters for short e,unllr the words men, many, bury;- and the f and h for f, as seen under the worils fail, laugh, :indvso in other parts of the drawing. I

I construct letters by inserting the phonie sign 'within theskeleton or outline of the common alphabetie form, asseen in Drawing'I, a; 3, 6, 8,10: e;,5: g; 2, 3:11; 2zk; 2i l; 2:'0; S,9,10: CU2: u; 5, 7, 9: w;'2,3`,4,5: y;'2,3,21.

I combine the above forms for phonic and silent letters, to indicate the pronunciation of orthography, as seen in Drawings III, IV.

Iclalmthe use of a skeleton outline, or light form of an alphabetic letter, with a phonic sign includedv within it, or constituting apart of it, to'indieate a particular sound of that letter. 4

I-also claim the use, in cases'where' several` alphabetic letters mustfbe employed for the saine sound, of Phonic signselosely resembling each other, so as to be'substantially thesamephonic sigm'tho'u'glt usedfns the whole orpa 'ts of dillerent letters. i i

I also claim the employment of light-faced letters, (as skeleton, hair-line, outline, or in any way malle of lighter 001013) of otherwise the same general form, size, upright' position, and character :is the rest of the font,

for silent letters, vin combination' with phonic letters, in order to indicate the pronuneiationot` wordswithout changing the common orthography andvfnmiliarloutline of the 'word or word-picture. v

I also elaim'tho employment of phonic-roivel and consonant-letters, (or pet-uliarly-construeterl forms of the alphabetic letters,) in combination with any peculiar' Class of letters, for the silent letters, in orrler to' indicate the vpronunciation of words without Changing the common or established orthography, substantially as described.

In witness whereof,-I have hereunto set my hantl, this 28th day of October, A. D. 1865.'

EDWIN LEIGH.

Witnesses:

Fi. GOULD, J. B.v CRSBY. 

